4-year-old drowns in pool during family gathering

A 4-year-old Mississippi girl drowned in Wakulla County on Friday afternoon during a family gathering.

The child, from Prentiss, Miss., was discovered in the Crawfordville pool after it is believed she slipped away from the gathering, according to a release from the Wakulla County Sheriff's Department.

From inside the home, family members saw the girl motionless in the deep end of the pool and performed CPR on the child before Wakulla County EMS and fire officials arrived on scene.

A preliminary autopsy performed by the medical examiner Saturday showed the death was consistent with accidental drowning. No criminal charges have been filed.

Witnesses told sheriff's deputies the girl was last seen inside the home about 20 minutes before she was found in the pool.

Investigators determined the girl may have fallen into the water while reaching for an item floating in the pool.

WCSO Spokesman Keith Blackmar said investigators counted 19 people, adults and juveniles, at the gathering and due to the tragic nature of the incident there was hesitation to release details about the drowning. The names of family members have not been released.

Blackmar said it was unclear of the girl was alive when EMS officials arrived, but she was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Tallahassee.

Florida Department of Children and Families northwest region spokeswoman DaMonica Rivas said the agency was still gathering information about the death, but has been active in alerting communities around the state of the dangers of child drowning and promoting swimming and pool safety.

Statewide, there have been 42 child drowning deaths in 2014, 69 percent of them among children younger than 3. Nineteen of those occurred after children were able to get out of the home and away from supervision undetected.

Drownings are the most-frequent cause of child deaths this year among cases that have had a determination on cause of death, according to DCF data.

DCF has launched a water-safety campaign this summer to push the importance of swimming lessons, knowledge of CPR and supervision in prevention, Rivas said.

"One layer is not as strong, but if you have four points it makes the whole child-drowning preventions stronger," she said. "Every layer builds on the previous layer."